Yumi Nu

Kim Kardashian, Ciara, Maye Musk and Yumi Nu are the four cover models for this year's Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.

Ciara: Ciara is another in the entertainment industry. The wait is finally over—the cover models for the 2022 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue have been revealed. Kardashian shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

Model Yumi Nu just made history as the first Asian plus-size model on the cover of Sports Illustrated's iconic swim issue. TZR sits down with the star.

“I’m hoping to get into the Asian fashion industry more and shake it up in the best way possible because of what I think a lot of Asian women go through. She says she probably wouldn’t have struggled with her self-image the way that she did through middle and high school if she’d seen more people like herself, in bathing suits and being celebrated for their beauty, featured on the cover of the likes of SI Swim. Nu has experienced fashion’s shortcomings both as an everyday consumer and as a model — she says some of the brands she’s worked with in the past haven’t been prepared with clothing her size on set. Before she steps on set, she curates a playlist to have on deck that makes her feel strong and sexy. Poised and powerful as ever on its glossy front page, one would imagine she simply wakes up like that, but the kind of self-possession that shows up on a cover is more of a practice than a magical natural talent for the 25-year-old. But honored as she was to be shooting for the magazine in back-to-back editions, she had no idea that this time around she was slated to be an SI cover star (along with Kim Kardashian, Maye Musk, and Ciara), making her the first plus-size Asian American woman to hold that distinction.

The rising model, musician and fashion entrepreneur opens up to PEOPLE about bringing diversity to the cover of 2022 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.

I feel the most confident when I'm in pursuit of things I love, when I'm actively writing music and creating. "In her first year of being in the spotlight, Yumi is coming into who she is and taking on the responsibility of what she stands for. Think big, leave so much room for yourself to do what you might think is impossible. "The journey we've been on — to break out of the mold the world put us in — may sound familiar. It's certainly familiar to the women we've chosen to be our cover models: Maye, Ciara, Yumi, Kim," MJ Day, Editor in Chief of SI Swimsuit, said in a statement. We want to be on the frontline of change in the industry.

YUMI Nu is making headlines for her 2022 Sports Illustrated cover.The musician and model is one of the four models selected for the Sports Illustrated.

This cover marks a huge step in the right direction." Email us at [email protected] or call 212 416 4552. We want people to feel good in their skin. Nu is "still processing" the fact that she is on the cover of the July issue of the popular magazine. We want to be on the frontline of change in the industry." "For as long as I could remember, I’ve been telling my agents and any agency I met with that I wanted to be the first plus size model on the cover of Japanese Vogue," she wrote.

The singer-songwriter is the first Asian curve model on an SI cover, and the niece of model Devon Aoki and DJ Steve Aoki.

I really had my sights set on music, but then the industry left more room for me to be a part of it. He was like, ‘If I were a teenage boy, I’d have a poster of you in my room. I was shaking, I was crying.